How Digital Wallets Will Change Mobile Banking Apps

Have you ever really thought about the ramifications of adding mobile payments to your mobile banking platform?

Today’s mobile banking app is all about account transfers, reviewing balances and taking pictures of checks. But the use cases between banking and payments are so drastically different that we as financial organizations are going to have to rethink our mobile banking apps. We will have to decide whether it is a mobile payments application or a mobile banking application.

That said, all signs point to mobile banking becoming mobile payment banking. I believe this transformation will happen in two phases. First, people will realize that the mobile banking app and the mobile payments app are very different – and to get to market quickly, they will have to make a decision to separate these two applications that serve them for a bit until the novelty of mobile phone payments wears off.

Then, in the background, the organization will start work redesigning their mobile banking application so its mobile payment application is part of the application’s flow. This redesign will include features that seemed to be nice to have before and now are necessary such as:

Quick PIN access – For maximum usage, members will need quick access to their mobile payments application while at the counter or in the store. It’s that simple.

Push notifications – Since the mobile payments platform seems to be built around loyalty offers, credit unions will need to remarket their alerts capability to allow members to take advantage of local-based loyalty offers with their digital wallets.

Real-time balances and history – It will be necessary to have constant real-time balances and history to provide to the digital wallet and to the analytics that will push members deals based on where they made purchases, which will be driven by their account history.

Lending – In-line retail lending will soon be a common thing. (Think about how PayPal wants to make a loan for airline tickets when you use it for a purchase.) Financial institutions will need to be ready with this capability to take advantage of the big-ticket purchase opportunities.

So be ready and start thinking ahead about what needs to be done to make your current mobile banking application “wallet ready” for your members. Time to stay ahead of the payments curve. Let’s hear what you have to say.